8. Hi, Nostradammit

I didn’t choose the name of a movie. I chose a play on words.

I used to sing with a community chorus in Long Beach, CA. One rehearsal the director announced that the amounts we paid for our dues (which took the form of a donation to the chorus; one could choose one’s own amount) would be listed with our names in the next program. I rebelled, and the day before the program went to the printer, I asked the person overseeing the project if he would change my name to “Bertha Venation” * -- the first name that came to mind when considering a pseudonym -- in that section of the program. He did. Of course everyone in the chorus figured out that it was me (process of elimination), and I was henceforth known as Bertha Venation.

* “Bertha Venation” is the name of a drag queen in Harvey Fierstein’s play/movie “Torch Song Trilogy.”